The present invention relates to the new and distinct cultivar of Coneflower from the genus Echinacea and given the cultivar name ‘Coral Craze’. The new plant was the result of a self-pollination by the inventor of an unnamed proprietary hybrid known as 12-2-1 on Jun. 23, 2014 at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich. This seedling was evaluated first in trials in the summer of 2016 at the same nursery and assigned the breeder code of 14-4-2. Echinacea ‘Coral Craze’ has been asexually propagated at the same nursery by crown division since 2016 and also using careful shoot tip tissue culture procedures and found to reproduce plants that exhibit all the characteristics identical to the original plant.
Echinacea ‘Coral Craze’ is distinct from all other Coneflowers known to the inventor. The nearest comparison cultivars are ‘Kim's Knee High’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 12,242, ‘Red Knee High’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 20,411, ‘Glowing Dream’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 24,329, ‘Solar Flare’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,133, ‘Little Annie’ (not patented) and ‘Delicious Candy’ (not patented). The parent plant, 12-2-1, has more upright, denser flower stems with smaller foliage and smaller flower heads. ‘Kim's Knee High’ has lighter pink ray petals on slightly shorter stems, and the ray petals are smaller and droop more than the new plant when young. ‘Red Knee High’ is slightly shorter in habit and has rich magenta ray flowers that droop significantly more than the new plant. ‘Glowing Dream’ has ray flowers that are watermelon pink on slightly smaller plants. ‘Solar Flare’ produces wider flower heads and has ray flowers that are more magenta-orange on taller plants. ‘Little Annie’ is shorter in habit, the flower heads are smaller and the ray flowers are lighter magenta.